


Shot Through the Heart

by MegumitheGreat



Series: Shameless Mitchentine what-ifs, inserts, and fixes [8]
Category: The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: Archery, Attempt at Humor, Bon Jovi - Freeform, Competition, F/M, Mutual Pining, One Shot, One-Sided Attraction, Self-Indulgent, scene insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-03-07 17:49:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18878161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MegumitheGreat/pseuds/MegumitheGreat
Summary: Louis coerces Mitch into a shooting contest so he takes a break from his bomb.  Clementine watches.





	Shot Through the Heart

**Author's Note:**

> We didn't get to see much of happy Louis interact Mitch, so I figured that I could write a little something-something. It's probably that as good just because this past week has been super busy and I could indulge in Mitch as much, but I had Bon Jovi in my head. Like, I always got the lyrics to the song wrong, and I never realized it WASN'T a love song.

Louis and Mitch—and Violet to an extent—were glad that Clementine and AJ were back even if two of the three were still not entirely happy with all that had happened to Marlon and Brody. And while Louis was slowly coming to terms that Marlon specifically was sending their friends out to be killed, Mitch refused to see that. He had liked Clementine and AJ up until the truth came out, and it was only natural that he felt betrayed and vexed with them that they destroyed him even when he had surrendered.

The time that they had been spending together—the greenhouse and whatever down time they could manage in preparation to the raiders’ attack—had helped to mend their relationship. Mitch was less angry with Clementine; she hadn’t been the one to pull the trigger. AJ was the one that had blown his brains out and though he wanted to atone, it sounded like he was only parroting what Clementine had told him.

He couldn’t stay mad at that, though. It wasn’t like every child didn’t parrot what someone older said. When Willy was younger and did bad things, he tried to tell him how to make up for them. But the pain of watching a friend die in a situation where he didn’t have to…it was an anger that was extremely difficult to move on from. He hated that AJ killed Marlon when he wasn’t a threat, and he hated that he hated them for something that didn’t have to happen because of his feelings for Clementine that no one could know about.

So when Louis approached him while he was working on his bomb with a particularly foolish smile, he had to flash him a very unfriendly look. “Hey, buddy,” Louis said slowly and cheerfully. He sat across from him at the picnic table that he always sat at. He stared at him, eyes narrow and smile baring his teeth. “Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey.”

“What, Louis?” Mitch’s growled at him.

“Take a load off, man!” Louis needled him. “Have some fun, dude!”

Mitch rolled his eyes before finally glaring at him to leave him alone. “I am having fun,” he gruffly said.

“Nah, looks like you’re just working.”

“And you should be working, too.” He focused back on his bomb. “Violet’s going to chew your ass out if you’re not being productive. I don’t feel like being yelled at by her.” He started another test of a smaller version of the bomb by clicking his igniter on the fuse. It lit, and he ordered Louis to get a safe distance from it. The fuse fizzled when it reached the end. Louis was still sitting at the table unimpressed. “Shit.”

“Yeah, I don’t know any of this chemistry stuff, but even I could tell it wasn’t going to work.”

“Shut up,” Mitch said, puffing up with frustration. He sighed. “Back to the drawing board…again.”

“Seriously, man. Take a break! Come shoot some arrows with me, blow off some steam, show off your hunter skills to Clem.”

Mitch paused with a doubtful look. He was on speaking terms with Clementine, and there had been some indications of affection from her that he had managed to tell himself weren’t really genuine just so he could keep his distance from her. But as the school’s romantic, Louis was insisting that he play with the idea of showing off to the girl that carried herself as a self-trained warrior—not that everyone wasn’t as such.

“Come on!” Louis was practically begging at this point. “Look, I can ask someone like Ruby or Tenn to get Clementine to watch.”

“You’re embarrassing, you know that?” Mitch snapped at him.

“Yeah, but I think it’s a good balance for all the stone-faced busybodies like yourself.”

Mitch sighed begrudgingly. Louis wasn’t going to let him off the hook until he at least shot a couple rounds with him. He left the failed experiment on the table for the tiny practice area set up behind the couches that he and Willy usually took for lounging during the evenings while waiting for dinner.

There were two bows—Marlon’s and one of the spares that everyone else used for hunting in the safe zone. There were plenty of arrows, some found through the school and others picked up whenever they ventured out. Louis always used Marlon’s bow as a remembrance of his best friend. Mitch was okay with using one of the regular bows since that was what he was used to when he went hunting with Aasim.

By all means, Louis was a terrible shot and rarely went out with the hunting party because of it. He swore up and down to Violet that he was taking preparations seriously by practicing his shooting, and he liked to think that he was at least doing a little better. Mitch was different. He had precision and sharp focus. Hitting his target was seldom a hassle, though he never liked shooting as much as blowing things up.

It was why he detested this farce of a competition. After all, Clementine was a much better shot than either one of them. She never really hit the bull’s-eye, but she could get pretty damn close. So what sense was there to showing off?

“Okay, so let’s do three arrows for me, three arrows for you,” Louis said. “Best two out of three, whoever can hit the center the most amount of times. Sounds fair?”

“You’re setting yourself up to lose,” Mitch told him.

“But it’ll help me to get better. See, I have a reason to hit the center. I’m aiming for Clementine’s heart.”

Mitch rolled his eyes. He told him to go ahead and shoot. Louis stood with feet apart, and arms up. Dominant eye open, arrow nocked, string drawn. A gentle breeze made the target a moving one. He worried. No, he had to remain calm. It wasn’t just about impressing Clementine. He needed to learn to survive.

He let go of the arrow, and it sped toward the target. It hit one of the outer circles far from the center. He hummed in disappointment. He fired again, hitting a little closer once he corrected his aim. The final arrow for the round, flew past the target into the roots of the tree.

“Damn, I’m that bad?” he said half-joking and half-incredulously. “Your turn, Mitch.”

Mitch reluctantly stood up from one of the couches and made his way to where Louis was standing. He stood feet apart, arms up and levelled with his cheek so he could see down the shaft, back straight. It was at that moment that Clementine quietly came to see what they were doing after having seen them from her dorm window while taking a break. Louis took a step or two back out of Mitch’s peripheral vision. He raised a finger to his lips, signaling for her to stay quiet.

Clementine stayed where she was off to the side and behind the two boys. She stared at Mitch, who looked rather heroic posed like that. She, without realizing it, was rather awestruck by his form, and she began to realize that maybe his haughty stance wasn’t just because he thought he was tough. He trained himself to stand that way to make sure he always had good aim. He was otherworldly.

“You, uh, going to take the shot?” Louis asked him.

Mitch did, his eyes on the bull’s-eye. He let go, and the arrow sunk into the target a few inches from the center. His next two shots hit around the same spot. “Wow,” he grumbled.

“Precision but no accuracy,” Louis teased him.

“Ah, shut it. At least I was closer to the target than you were.”

“Nice shot, Mitch,” Clementine congratulated.

“Jesus!” Mitch gasped. Louis laughed out so hard that he was wheezing and doubling over. “Louis, you could have said she was right there! But no, give me a fucking heart attack.”

Clementine crossed her arms and gave one of her judgmental looks, and Mitch tried to shoo her away. She could do better than both of them, but she could tell there was something more than just target practice. Still, she stuck around, watching Mitch as he shuffled around uncomfortably.

“What’s that song…?” Louis wondered aloud, pacing back and forth. “Oh! ‘Shot through the heart, and you’re to blame!’” he sang loud and proud and slightly off-key.

“Hey, Louis?” Mitch said rather nicely.

“You know the next line?”

“No, take your shot.”

“The 80s, huh?” Clementine pointed out. “Didn’t think there were kids my age that listened to that stuff.”

“I’m your regular Mr. Music, after all,” Louis bowed to her. “Though, classical is still my favorite.”

Mitch averted his eyes from the two. He wasn’t much for music, but it wasn’t like he was an uncultured swine. He knew the song was the exact opposite of both of what they were feeling. So while Louis took his turn, he nodded to the beat of the song and the rhythm of the guitar in his head. He tried to spin the lyrics to something more fitting, but the song itself was one of rejection, deception, and breaking up. He wanted to get together with Clementine, not drive her away despite trying to make her leave just moments ago. He frowned.

“Mitch, you’re up,” Clementine said to him. Her chestnut eyes were sparkling, as if she was excited to see him pose again like some sort of warrior. It got her pumped up to fight.  
She kept her eyes on the target, Mitch’s arrows grouping together again just a few inches from the bull’s-eye. He cursed, frustrated that he still couldn’t hit the center. Clementine simply applauded him. It was strange getting that type of praise from someone that he had been giving the cold shoulder to, but perhaps it was whatever mindset she had when teaching AJ how not to be a little monster. Positive reinforcement of some sort, surely.

Louis watched Clementine. He thought that maybe having her participate would up the ante, throw Mitch off his game, and win her heart without breaking a sweat. He offered her his bow.

“Show us how it’s done, _mademoiselle_ ,” he said with a toothy grin.

Mitch scoffed, finding a spot on the couch to sit. He was fighting the urge to doze off when he heard the rapid _tock-tock-tock_ of the arrows hitting the target in the center. Louis’s mouth was hanging by its hinges while Mitch just sat silently ashamed that Clementine had perfectly shot the arrows when both of them were still struggling. Of course, he had heard her fight off three walkers alone in the greenhouse, and she had survived for years on her own. He wasn’t too surprised by her skill. Still he couldn’t help but just stare at the target and pout.

“How’s that?” she asked nonchalantly. She glanced at Mitch expectantly.

“Yeah, you’re good,” Mitch sputtered.

Louis joined Mitch on the couch. “Okay, since you’re clearly the best archer, who wins between me and Mitch here?” he asked. He felt pretty confident about his abilities. Mitch progressively cared less about the little contest. “It’s gotta be me.”

Clementine raised an eyebrow. “Uh, I think it’s pretty obvious that Mitch is better,” she said.

“I could have told you that,” Mitch sighed. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “I’ve got to finish that bomb,” he mumbled.

Louis and Clementine exchanged looks once Mitch stopped moving and started to quietly snore. They were surprised that he so easily fell asleep; how long had he been working on this project? Louis was going to bite the bullet and wake him up, but Clementine stopped him. Her reasoning was that if he rested, then he could better figure something out to ensure the bomb worked. She hadn’t checked up on his progress yet; however, considering that she had seen him work every day without sleep on it, she was just glad that he was taking a break.

“So, what do you think?” Louis asked her.

“About Mitch?” she returned with question.

“Dude’s been working hard to make sure this plan succeeds. He really wants to help you, you know. That’s all he’s been doing.”

Clementine put her hand on her hip. “Well, he can be a dick, but he means well. Even if he was mad with me and AJ—but I believe in him. We all have to if we want to stand a chance against the raiders.”

“Oh-ho, the Amazonian maiden has spoken!” Louis said, a little disappointed but there wasn’t much he could do aside from try to sway her opinion in his favor. He looked at her knowingly. “And you’re _just_ believing in him because of that bomb?”

Clementine looked at him suspiciously. “Yes,” she said with a straight face.

Putting his hands up, Louis simply agreed that was the case and dropped it. He left the training spot to go play on his piano before getting back to business doing whatever else needed to be done.

Clementine was left to her own devices—patrolling around, making sure things were in order, helping out wherever she could. And the bomb was the only thing really left to work on although she didn’t want to disturb Mitch at the moment. Then he woke up and jumped up from the couch without any warning, startling her somewhat.

“Stupid, why am I sleeping?” he chastised himself. “I don’t have time to sleep! I have to finish it.”

Clementine just watched him circle around the couch to make his way back to the picnic table. She wanted to help him, but there were still other preparations to double-check before she could find an excuse to spend time with him.

“Whoa there,” she whispered to herself. She turned from the table. “Focus on the mission first. Once we survive, then…” She looked at him briefly then headed back to the school building.

**Author's Note:**

> So I still have trouble seeing Clem being the more romantic one between the canon choices (at the player's discretion), but honestly I think it would be cute if she did have internal conflicts about having feelings for someone (coughmitchcough). But I suppose it's not really possible since the game gives you the decision to remain platonic or be romantic. Still...Mitch should have been a choice, just sayin'.


End file.
